


A Spare Room

by perniciousLizard



Series: Goat to be Kidding [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Established Sans/Toriel, F/M, Post-Pacifist Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-07
Updated: 2016-02-07
Packaged: 2018-05-18 17:14:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5936428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perniciousLizard/pseuds/perniciousLizard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Toriel wishes she could eat breakfast with Sans every morning.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Spare Room

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for day fifteen of a "change" themed 30 Day challenge. The whole challenge is [here](https://alloftheseprompts.wordpress.com/2015/12/30/30-day-challenge-writing-about-change/) and all the entries I've finished are [here](http://it-refused.tumblr.com/tagged/30-day-change).
> 
>  
> 
> **15\. Write about someone changing their address.**

“catch you next time through, tori,” Sans said, as he tugged his coat back on by the door.  "it’s always _goat_ to see you.“  

"Bone-voyage!” she said.  "Sans, it is a shame you have to leave so early.“

She took his hands, told him to take care, and kissed him on the top of his head.  When she closed the door behind him, she felt a brief burst of sadness that she tried to push aside.  It was never long before she saw him again.  

"You silly old goat, Toriel,” she said to herself.  She hadn’t felt this way in, well, she didn’t want to think about the number of years it had been.  

She thought it might be nice to wake up and have him there, still, and have breakfast with him in the morning.  The couple times it had happened had been nice, even if they had just been because he nodded off on her couch and she didn’t have the heart to wake him and send him away.  

He had woken up in the morning, full of apologies but not really  _looking_ very sorry, and made her special apology pancakes.  They were delicious.  

–

She remembered when they had first reached the surface, and everyone was still trying to organize themselves and figure out how to live in someplace so open and different.  

She and Sans had just been very good friends (very important friends, so it was strange to consider them _just_ friends), and she had asked, “Where do you think you will stay?  If you could live anywhere, where would you like best?”  She had not been asking about a specific city or country, really, but about what _kind_ of place would make him happy.  

“oh. i dunno.  wherever paps ends up, we’ll get a place.”  

After he answered her question, she thought to correct him about what she had been asking.  But then she thought about what she knew about Sans from all that time they spent knocking out joke after joke on the Ruins door and giving each other a temporary cure for their loneliness, and she closed her mouth and nodded.  He had answered exactly the question she had asked.

His home had not turned out to be far at all from where she and Frisk had settled down.  Well, it was about half an hour by car, but Sans always knew a quicker way and could be there in five minutes if she needed someone to watch her child on short notice.   He was a funny little skeleton and she loved him with all her heart.  

She had not known Papyrus very well, and decided at first that he must be the kind of person who needed looking after.  Once she did know him, and had spent many afternoons chatting with him while Sans taught Frisk card tricks in the living room, she thought he was a skeleton who was perfectly capable of caring for himself.  He cooked for himself, cleaned after himself, and was an amazingly hard worker.  

She realized, after a time, that Sans was the one who didn’t bother to properly care for himself, but she knew that he was not staying with his brother because Papyrus did his laundry.  

It had more to do with how sometimes Sans was so tired, and how he would disappear for days and days, and how when she saw him again inevitably Papyrus would be there encouraging him.  Sans would apologize for being too “bone-tired” to get out much and of course she would say she didn’t mind.  He would still look exhausted, but she could tell he was trying, and he was trying for his brother.

She was never sure what was wrong.  Sans had things he did not tell her, but she had many things in her own past she had not shared with him. They made each other a little  happier in the present, so it was all right.

–

“Sans, I would like for you to see something,” Toriel said.  He was sitting on her couch, next to Frisk, watching her child set up a movie for them to watch.  

“sure,” he said.  He mussed up Frisk’s hair as he got up, and earned himself a couch pillow to the back as soon as he turned away.  

Toriel took him into the hall.  

“what’s the story, morning glory?” he asked.  

She couldn’t help herself, even though this was serious.  "I should ask you, ‘what’s up, buttercup?’“  

He nodded, in appreciation.  "what’s cookin’, good lookin’.”  

She liked that one.  "Oh dear.  We could do this for ages, and I did call you out here for a reason.“  

He nodded.  "what’s the prob, bob?”  When he saw her smile was a little shaky, he asked, “it the kid?”

“Oh! No, nothing like that.  Sans, do you know what this room is?” She opened up the door to a room she was using for storage.  

“this some kind of trick question?”  

“It’s nothing.  I don’t use it for anything, and all these things…well, if I needed them, they would not still be in boxes after so long, would they?”  

“i guess.”

“I was thinking of turning it into a bedroom, but I am not sure if it is big enough, or if I really need another one.”

She made herself look down at Sans, now, and she felt something clench at her heart when she saw that he didn’t look the slightest bit confused.  

“you want me to move boxes i think you’re barking up the wrong tree here, tori.”  He knew better than that.  He sounded resigned.  

Now she knew he was going to say no, but she was going to take a deep breath and make him say the words.  Then, she could stop being silly and continue enjoying what they already had.  

“If your brother ever needed to sleep here, I thought he might like a real room.  He does not seem like he can fall asleep just anywhere, like you can.”  

Now, he sounded confused.  "wait.  this is for papyrus?“

"Oh, yes, of course.  Who did you think–”  She blinked in surprise. “Sans!”  She covered her mouth and laughed, “If you had to sleep here, you would sleep in my room.”

“oh. well, yeah.”  He laughed.  "tori, you have to admit, just showing me a bunch of boxes and saying 'guess’ is putting a lot of faith in me.“  

"You’re usually so perceptive!”

“not really.  i thought you were asking me to shack up with you.”  

She looked at everything other than Sans.  "Well.  The invitation is open.“

"and paps would visit sometimes and stay here?”

“I thought maybe he would also live here,” she said.  

“oh.”

She forced herself to look, again.  Sans was staring into the room, the lights in his eyes bright, like he was actually considering it.  

“I am completely happy with how things are, and I understand if you want things to stay like this,” she said.  "But, Sans, I wanted you to know that if you ever wanted to…shack up…“  She trailed off.  

Sans snickered.  "ok i’ll think about it if you keep calling it that.”  

She rolled her eyes.  "I am being serious!“

Sans took out his cell phone and held it up so she could read what he was typing.   _hey bro.  tori wanted me to tell you she wants you to move in with her_

The response was near-instantaneous.   _SANS! WHAT KIND OF JOKE IS THIS?  THE GREAT PAPYRUS WOULD NEVER DO THAT TO ANY PERSON, MUCH LESS HIS BROTHER!_

_ok what if i moved in too_

_ARE YOU TRYING TO TELL ME YOU’RE GOING TO THE "NEXT LEVEL” WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND?  WHY WOULDN’T YOU JUST SAY THAT???  CONGRATULATIONS, IF THAT IS IN FACT WHAT YOU ARE TRYING TO SAY??_

He turned the screen away and continued the text conversation for a few silent minutes.  Toriel felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest, no matter what Sans decided.  He didn’t seem upset with her for pushing things, and actually seemed to like the idea.  If he decided not to change things, at least she had asked.  

“well i hope you were serious, because i think he’s already renting a truck,” Sans said, shoving his phone in his pocket.

“Oh!” She gasped, and then on an impulse she lifted him up and hugged him. And then she quickly set him down again and apologized.  

“who gets upset about being _picked up_ by a woman like you?” Sans wondered.  Still, he looked flustered.  

She burst out laughing.  "Oh, Frisk is going to be so happy!“

"yeah i guess we should tell 'em.”  

They went back into the living room together.  Frisk was on the phone with Papyrus, and they gave Sans a thumbs up, their expression serious.  

With Papyrus a part of the move, the spare room was cleared out and redecorated over the course of a few days.  They moved in almost immediately afterwards.

Sans didn’t make pancakes every morning.  Sometimes Papyrus cooked, or Toriel did, or they all just dumped some cereal into milk or stuck some bread into a toaster.  She woke up and Sans was at her table, coating a piece of toast with mustard, and him being there wasn’t notable or special.  It was better than that.

He was home, and it happened to be with her.  


End file.
